Vallecito Campground in San Diego County, California. Photo by Gerald Burke.

GoNOMAD's RV Page

Lots of world travelers have said goodbye to the high cost of hotels and restaurants and explore new destinations in a recreational vehicle.

Freed from the constraints of a fixed schedule, you can tour the countryside at your own pace and if you're having a good time you can stay as long as you like. No reservations, no booking hotels, no need for public transportation

You can shop at local markets and cook your own meals, and you can pack up some provisions and go to remote, secluded places far, far off the tourist track.

If you want to go overseas, you can ship an RV, or swap with another RV owner or find a rental. For a lot of travelers, including GoNOMAD's Number One Nomad David Rich, it's the only way to go.

The Butterfield Stage is long gone, but Vallecito lives on as a delightful fall, winter and spring campground on the edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Many of the stories in the history of Vallecito come from the era of the travelers who were headed west. One is a story of a lady who died there after the arduous journey, name unknown, who lies buried in a tiny graveyard above the tent area.

She had come from her home in the east to marry her sweetheart who had struck it rich in the gold fields of California. Of frail health, she had suffered on the hard and wearing journey and died at the stop in Vallecito.

No one knew her name, and a search of her luggage revealed no name, but in it was the long, white wedding dress she was to have worn and she was buried in the little cemetery in that dress. Read more

As prices for airline tickets, hotels, and other necessities for a trip continue to rise, many travelers have begun to look for alternatives that will not only help save some money, but give a new perspective on travel as well.

Some people have begun to simply travel more in their own neck of the woods, while others have found any way possible to scrimp and save. Chris Farrow, owner and creator of Motor Home Holiday Swap, has found a way to bring the two together.

The company was born when Farrow came up with the idea of swapping mobile homes with some friends from France.

"We both had similarly sized vehicles," he says, "and as it happened we both had children of similar age, and we both saved ourselves a fortune." Read more

RV the World is a new book by David Rich, a hopeless travel addict and GoNOMAD's most intrepid writer, who has braved blizzards, monsoons, desert heat and State Department travel advisories to visit the world's most out-of-the-way places from the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan to the wilds of Borneo to the Harley-Davidson Rally Week in Sturgis, South Dakota.

He has pursued freelance travel writing and exotic travel for sixteen years, living so far in more than 140 countries. However, with 191 countries in the United Nations (and 202 at the Olympics) he’s barely halfway through the list. He says he has "sold everything" and is "classically homeless."

The upshot, after the blind alley of a year starting to sail around the world, were RVs purchased in Europe (three years RVing Europe, North Africa and the Middle East), Australia (13 months), New Zealand (six months) and South America (two years) plus various sorties through most of Africa and Asia. Read more

In Australia they call them the Grey Nomads; they're the retirees who sell their houses, spend the kids' inheritance on a caravan (trailer) or motorhome and then head off to explore the Outback.

With a month's supply of meat packed into daily servings in the freezer, their favorite pewter wine goblets and deluxe folding chairs, they roam from one free roadside campsite to another, part of a community of travelers that shares travel stories, spectacular sunsets, laughs, and directions to the cheapest fuel.

They travel equipped with all the comforts of home: gas refrigerators, showers, comfy beds -- often a TV. And their adult kids are realising they're onto a good thing and throwing in their jobs, buying themselves a moveable home, and joining the Grey Caravan. Read more

Since 2000, GoNOMAD Travel has provided travelers with inspiring travel articles, photos from destinations around the world, and a community of like-minded travelers who are seeking to learn about the world and share their travels with others.